Chronicling the life and times of a white woman working in IT, whilst being a feministicalogical, vegetarian, compassionate, political, nerdy, animal-loving, hilarious dyke. Because life doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's all relevant.

Friday, 13 July 2012

Daniel Tosh and the reason rape jokes aren't just jokes

Unless people have been living under a rock, I'm sure they've heard
about our latest example of why Daniel Tosh is a wart on the ass of
low-brow comedy:

(EW) -- Daniel Tosh isn't the sort of comedian who typically apologizes
for anything. His hit Comedy Central series "Tosh.0" frequently explores
potentially offensive territory with jokes that some would consider
misogynistic or racist, and that his fans find hilarious. But it seems
Tosh firmly strayed over the line during a recent live appearance.

The comedian tweeted an apology and a link to a blogger's account of his
recent stand-up performance. "All the out of context misquotes aside,
I'd like to sincerely apologize," Tosh wrote.

The original anonymous "friend of a friend" account would be too sketchy
to use for a source if not for Tosh's tweet acknowledging there is some
substance to it.

So keeping in mind that Tosh says he was misquoted, the original account
was by a female audience member who says she was unfamiliar with Tosh's
act when she caught his performance at the Hollywood Laugh Factory. She
claims, "Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative
statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not
be funny, rape is hilarious."

The audience member felt "provoked" and says she yelled out, "Actually, rape jokes are never funny!"

Continues the account: "After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a
moment. Then, he says, 'Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by
like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just
raped her...' and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process
what was happening but knowing I needed to get out of there, immediately
nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed
it out of there ... I should probably add that having to basically flee
while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was
gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally
terrifying..."

Tosh tweeted: "The point I was making before I was heckled is there are
awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them," then
added: "On a lighter note tonight's new episode of Tosh.0 will be
featuring clowns."

Comedy Central had no comment.

That seems kind of like a typical day that ends in "y" for this
performer. So why's this news, imo? Well, because all over the internet
the trolls have been up in arms defending their right to "free speech"
and telling people who take exception to rape jokes (or rape threats at a
comedy show) that "it's just a joke and chill yer vaginas", or some
variation.